VIRAN

  Climbing was usually something you did with one limb at a time. Balancing was easy, with three solid holds on terrain instead of two.

  You also weren't supposed to grab loose objects, like plants that had managed to grow on the side of the cliff, or big boulders that had come to rest.

  Viran hadn't been allowed to leave sight of the house for a whole day one time, for falling from up high because of that silly mistake. He had never done it again, for fear he might have to actually spend a whole day inside the walls the next time.

  Unfortunately, his options were limited right now, so both of his hands came off the wall, and he grabbed at whatever would keep him from falling right away.

  That mostly meant the squire, who had a nice thick layer of leather under the curved sheet of bronze on his chest. Viran's claws dug into the soft material really well, and he avoided the skin as best he could.

  His right hand found the haft of the polearm on the other side of the window, because Dovin said that controlling the enemy's weapon was very important when you were unarmed. Especially with real blades, instead of sparring tools.

  "Sorry about this." Viran tried to calm his opponent down as he levered himself up towards the window.

  Both of the squires were screaming, but Viran mostly felt bad for the one he had grabbed.

  He was heavier than his handhold, which meant that the polearm had clacked against the frame of the window, and the rest of the force he needed to pull himself back inside was spent dragging the bossy one closer to him, further out the window.

  Viran completely understood the boy's fear. He didn't want to fall off the cliff either, and he had climbed out on purpose. Being dragged partway over the edge must have been terrifying, but Viran was in a hurry.

  Explaining that they weren't supposed to fight would be much safer after he was inside.

  They were practically snout to nose by the time the other boy managed to scream words.

  "Do it! Quick!"

  Viran didn't even stop to nod at the invitation, throwing a leg over the windowsill as fast as he could.

  He still almost fell back out the window when electricity crackled, lighting the space in front of him for a moment.

  Viran's entire body went stiff with pain, but the muscles in his fingers curled on their own and saved his life, maintaining his hold on the haft of the polearm while the rest of his torso swung away from the window and into the wind.

  "Sorry!" The squeaky squire yelled as Viran got control of his limbs again. "This piece of junk is hard to control!"

  He was waving a thin rod with a ball at the end of it in one hand while Viran's dance partner slumped in his grip, having taken most of the energy to the back. The casting implement looked terrible, the spherical output surface at the end scratched and dented like something Auntie might offer to replace for someone. Half the copper in the channels looked shaved down and patched, at least from where Viran could see.

  It was no wonder he had discharged power accidentally when Viran startled him, if he was learning to throw lightning with a tool like that.

  Viran had just pulled his other leg back inside, and was trying to drag his tail in after him when the squire did it again.

  Electricity flashed again, and nobody stayed standing this time. The polearm fell awkwardly into the room towards the squire with the wand when Viran's hand slid down the haft. One of his knees hit the floor while his muscles weren't his own, and he accidentally twitched over forwards.

  Bossy stopped yelling when Viran fell on him, too busy gasping for the air that had just been knocked out of his chest.

  "Was that on purpose?" Viran asked suspiciously. "You should put that down until you're calm."

  Squeaky was busy slapping the wand with his glove, like bending the tool more would make the mana behave better. He still looked scared, stepping backwards with a squelch onto his dropped cloak and holding up the weapon while Viran clambered to his feet.

  Some of his muscles were twitching on their own, which made standing up hard. The air was starting to smell like Auntie was working. Hopefully just from the squire's magic, because Viran hadn't had time to tell her what was going on yet.

  He still needed to watch what was happening to do that, so calming down the squires was his job now.

  "I'm Viran." He introduced himself when he finished standing. "Dovin was looking for you two after we found your nephew. The knight."

  He didn't know which one of the squires was technically Rattles' uncle, but they figured it out for him.

  "You're Viran?" Squeaky got wide eyes, and stopped fiddling with the wand, taking another step back. "I just call him uncle instead. Is he okay?"

  Viran shrugged while Bossy rolled over and sucked air into his lungs.

  "He was only missing one finger by the time he surrendered. Want to sit down and wait?" Viran offered. "We can do that, before you go back to Eastwatch."

  Mentioning the fort was a bad idea. Squeaky hefted his mace, mana buzzing through the channels, and Bossy was crawling away from Viran, reaching towards his dropped polearm.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The squires didn't seem to realize they were stuck on this side of the pass anyway.

  "Dovin is busy, so I think I'm supposed to deal with you two." Viran tried one more time.

  He smiled, trying to be friendly, but neither of the squires seemed any calmer after Viran told them what was going on. Squeaky seemed almost more worried that Viran was trying to be nice, like he thought it was a trick.

  Which was annoying. This would have been much easier if Dast had stayed to help, but bad things were happening, so Viran was stuck with two jobs.

  He bent down to take the poleaxe before Bossy could pick it up, getting his fingers wrapped around the well-worn haft for a second time. The steel left the ground with some effort, but the wooden haft was just a bit too long for Viran's taste, making the weapon feel unwieldy in one hand.

  It was probably perfect for Bossy to use two hands with, though.

  "Oh yeah? Deal with this!"

  The mana in Viran's leg buzzed under the wave of pain when Bossy kicked him in the shin. Hard.

  Viran grunted and exhaled, hopping away from the pain and dropping the weapon to rub at the bruise.

  Mana buzzed a warning as Squeaky discharged the wand again, and there was a boom. The electricity leapt to the steel head of the poleaxe, blackening and splitting the haft in several places.

  Apparently they were fighting about who was being taken prisoner, even if they had no way to take Viran through the pass, and no rope to tie him up.

  Bossy thunked a gauntlet off the top of Viran's helmet, too dumb to aim for the end of his snout.

  "You broke it! It melted and you didn't even hit him!" Bossy yelled. "Do it right!"

  "I'm trying!" Squeaked the other squire while Viran stumbled back against the open water barrel and pulled himself up. "You're in the way!"

  Viran quit trying to stop the fight from happening and threw his forearm up when Bossy jabbed the back of his polearm at his face. The weapon was too long to swing in the confined space between the barrack walls and the interior wall of the tower stairs.

  Mana jarred again when the narrow wooden end of the weapon thunked into his elbow.

  Viran growled in pain.

  He backhanded Bossy's unarmored wrist, and the weapon clattered to the floor again. Purple light flashed through the window, but Viran couldn't turn around to check what was happening.

  Mirri would be fine. She had the Venatrix helping her.

  "Can't you two just sit quietly and wait?" He asked, standing up and nervously glancing back at the window.

  Not being able to see the battle was starting to be a problem. If Auntie got here and Viran was stuck playing with the squires, he would have failed at the important job.

  The smell of ozone answered him, and the threads of mana in the room flowed towards Squeaky's wand. Viran stepped on Bossy's shoulder before he could wriggle over and pick up the long axe again.

  "No wait wait wait wait!" Bossy yelled from the ground. "He's touching me!"

  Squeaky was frozen with indecision. The air around the wand, and the channels in his armor were crackling with energy.

  Viran frowned. Auntie was never that lazy with power close to people. It could do bad things to their hearts, and made them nervous.

  The squire must have terrible mana control, worse than Viran's. His casting would be easy to disrupt.

  But stepping off Bossy to cross the room would let Squeaky zap him again, and Viran really didn't want to find out what they would do if they won.

  He fumbled for the open water barrel instead, and threw his laziest 'bolt' of the day, aiming for the wand and hoping he hadn't just made a mess for no reason.

  Squeaky's eyes went wide under his helmet. Lightning cracked again, melting one of the lamps bolted to the wall by the tower door when he loosed the energy at the metal before Viran's 'bolt' could finish flying.

  "Stop trying that. Electricity is dangerous." Viran told him. "Auntie's not here yet, and I don't really want to fight you."

  "I wouldn't want to fight us either!" Squeaky hefted the soaked wand, miming a swing up at Viran's chin like the casting implement was a mace. "We're not scared of you! Or your auntie!"

  Viran tried not to sigh, and mostly managed it. He was starting to suspect the squires were just kind of stupid. Squeaky wasn't dumb enough to channel electrical mana through the wet casting implement, but everyone was scared of Auntie, especially when there was a storm in the sky.

  The wriggling squire beneath his foot renewed his struggles after Squeaky's declaration, still reaching for the half-broken polearm. Viran nudged it another handspan away, just in case.

  "Get him off me!" Bossy screeched. "I've got something! We can take him together!"

  Viran frowned. The squire was right. Two of them would be a real danger to him, especially if the older one had a trick to play. Even if he won, it would take too long.

  Squeaky bounced back and forth on the balls of his feet, doing feints with the mace from too far away to actually hit Viran. Drying the wand on his tunic would have been a much safer way to get the water off, but letting the squire keep flicking droplets at Viran would eventually leave him in trouble anyway.

  Viran stopped being polite about how much weight he was putting on Bossy's shoulder.

  He faked a lunge, snapping his jaws together loudly. The noise always been enough to scare Rhea into sharing the riverbank if she got territorial during one of his naps.

  Squeaky was less brave than the crocodile ever had been.

  The squire tripped on his cloak again, stumbling all the way back to the closed door with a whimper instead of swinging his 'mace' at Viran's jaw, like he should have.

  Viran's frown grew. This was taking too long, and charging at Squeaky would leave him trapped between two opponents.

  "Are you sure you're not scared?" He asked over Bossy's whining. "I can let him up if you guys promise to fight without weapons."

  The disadvantage would be worth making things less dangerous for everyone.

  The squire puffed his chest up before he answered.

  "No way! I'll fight you one on one!"

  That was already happening. But...

  "Like a duel?" Viran asked.

  "Y-y- yeah!" Squeaky stuttered. "A duel for you to let us go!"

  The door was right behind Squeaky, but just letting him run off would be dangerous with the Warlord's forces so close.

  A duel sounded like an excellent idea right now. It would have rules about how much someone could get hurt, he could use the stakes to get the squires to cooperate if he won, and he could check on the battle while they set terms.

  And duels had to be fair, or they weren't duels, just fights.

  "So I get a weapon, if we're dueling?" Viran asked. "Or are we both wrestling?"

  Squeaky went stock-still, staring up at Viran with his mouth hanging open. The skin Viran could see through his visor was pale, and the squire seemed to have forgotten they were fighting, hanging his weapon limply by his side and un-bending his knees.

  Viran wasn't sure what that meant, but he couldn't see the squire doing anything with his manasight. Maybe he was thinking. Mirri's face changed color when she was angry, or found out she was wrong about something.

  Hopefully he wasn't reconsidering settling things with a duel. Viran really didn't want to fight anyone, but he wanted to make sure Mirri was still safe more than that.

  "Let me up and I'll give you a weapon!" Bossy gave a strained yell from under Viran's foot.

  The squire's voice was a little smeared by the floor, but it was still close enough to speaking for Viran to understand, and shift his weight away.

  Hopefully he hadn't broken anything important pressing too hard.

  There was only one weapon Viran could see that was a proper size for dueling.

  As Viran bent to pick up the partially melted axe by its charred haft, a glowing bundle of power in one of the squire's belt pouches caught his eye.

  Viran hesitated. Nothing dense enough to twist his magesight like that could be good. But they had just agreed to a fair duel, and he was borrowing a weapon already.

  The artifact still made him nervous, charged like that.

  The newly-freed squire's hand blurred in the side of Viran's vision, yanking a dagger that glinted like steel out of its scabbard to plunge into Viran's calf.

  involuntary contraction of muscles caused by external electrical signals overrides nerve signals. Stimulation above this range can cause people to involuntarily grasp objects with active current flowing through them, locking the body in place until the current is interrupted or contact is broken by external forces. 30 mA is sufficient to cause fibrillation, which is the uncoordinated flexing of muscle fibers, and the threshold generally required to induce cardiac arrest.